Northville keeps Novi boys cagers out of playoffs

No spot was safe on the floor for Novi defenders in the Baseline Classic, as Northville buried shots from all possible angles to pull off a 61-44 boys basketball win on Friday night.

Leading the charge for the unbeaten Mustangs were seniors Justin Gibbons (21 points) and Justin Zimbo (16 points), who each had a trio of triples to their credit on a night where no distance was too distant.

With both squads neck-and-neck to close out the first quarter, Gibbons added a pair of long-range heaves, the last of which gave Northville a 14-12 lead and one they would not surrender the rest of the way.

As if that didn’t inject the necessary offensive mojo the Mustangs (16-0 overall, 10-0 KLAA Central) needed in this rivalry game, Gibbons launched a deafening shot from the top of the key as time expired to make it 28-19 at the half.

“We give our guys a lot of options,” Northville coach Todd Sander said. “We want them to read the defense and they’re really figuring out how to play based on what their defender is doing. They (Gibbons and Zimbo) both have unlimited range, but they both did a nice job too when guys challenged their shots in getting to the line and making free throws.”

Just like his teammate, Zimbo’s shots from beyond the arc came with some devastating effects, as Novi continued to see the gap continue to widen on the scoreboard in the third quarter.

Immediately after the Wildcats’ Naji Ozeir knocked down a jumper to pull within eight, Zimbo tossed up a three to make it a 34-23 game with 4:31 remaining to permanently keep the Mustangs ahead by a double-digit margin.

By the end of the third, Northville remained up by a 46-30 advantage.

When asked about who was the better long-range shooter, Gibbons quickly deferred to Zimbo.

“Making long range shots is his job,” said Gibbons. “Zimbo is a long-range shot kind of guy. Everyone on the team contributes and we’ve never had a game where everyone’s been off. We always have one guy who’s hot and when they’re hot, we just feed him the ball and we just play around him. That’s the strength of our team and we don’t have one guy who does it all, we have five guys who do it all.”

One of the bright spots for Novi (7-9, 4-6), which missed qualifying for the KLAA playoffs, was the play of sophomore guard Traveon Maddox, who connected on four three-pointers to finish with 17 points.

Also reaching double-figures was Ozeir with 10, including a 4-for-4 performance from the free throw line.

“We had two or three things in line in what we wanted to do,” Novi coach Brandon Sinawi said. “When one thing wasn’t working, we tried Plan B. And when that wasn’t working, we went to Plan C. We had different combinations of lineups as well. We didn’t execute as well as we wanted to, but we were trying to execute against a really, really good team. The stuff that we had laid out in terms of schemes offensively and defensively was ineffective, and that’s a credit to them.”

The Mustangs shot 16-of-25 at the free throw line, while the Wildcats were 6-of-9.

Sander reflected on how the rivalry win added to the exciting run his team has had this season.

“It’s a special game and there’s always a lot of energy and there’s always a lot of atmosphere,” said Sander, whose team opens the KLAA playoffs 7 p.m. Thursday at home against Plymouth. “Like we have all year, we’ve had different guys stepping up at different moments making key plays. When you do that, it’s going to be a good end result. They do all the little stuff that a lot of people don’t notice. They get all the loose balls, are machines on the offensive glass and they’re so unselfish on offense. It really is a special group.”